An ‘Ewa Beach couple is pursuing legal action against the city after one of them was allegedly beaten by police officers.
Kelei and Joseph Akana appeared at Wednesday’s meeting of the Honolulu City Council to demand answers following an incident that they claimed left Kelei unable to walk.
Joseph Akana told Aloha State Daily that, early on May 5, Kelei was in a parked car at the Pu‘uloa Beach Park in ‘Ewa Beach, when police officers approached and questioned her.
Although Kelei Akana subsequently moved the car elsewhere, the police approached her again, and cited her for having an expired vehicle registration tag.
Following this, Joseph said, officers told Kelei to leave her vehicle, which she refused. After an escalation, he said, several officers tased her four times and repeatedly punched her and struck her with batons.
“I was on the phone with her the whole time,” Joseph said. “What if that was your wife? What if you had to hear that?”
Joseph acknowledged that his car did have expired tags, and that Kelei had refused to leave the vehicle — she said she had identified herself to police as a “repatriated Hawaiian national” — but he said the officers’ alleged actions were wildly disproportionate to the situation and left Kelei in a wheelchair and with concussion-like symptoms.
Joseph called the incident “attempted murder” and said he has filed a complaint with the Honolulu Police Commission and is consulting with attorneys for further legal action.
For its part, HPD charged Kelei Akana with first-degree assault of a police officer, a Class C felony bearing a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Charging documents did not go into detail about the event; HPD did not respond to a request for comment by ASD.
The Akanas declined to provide photographs.
Some of the councilmembers seemed perturbed by the Akanas’ report, with ‘Ewa Beach council woman Andria Tupola apologizing profusely to the couple about the incident.
Council Chair Tommy Waters called the Akanas’ testimony “disturbing,” but advised them that, if the Police Commission finds evidence of police wrongdoing, HPD will still be the agency meting out punishment rather than the Commission – “which is something that perhaps the [Honolulu] Charter Commission should look at,” he mused.
Elsewhere on Wednesday’s Council agenda, the Council approved at first reading a resolution authorizing HPD to use “overt video monitoring” in City parks for a one-year pilot program. This program will place security cameras within as-yet undetermined parks — one park per district — in an effort to deter crime.
Council member Tyler Dos Santos-Tam — representing portions of Kaka‘ako, Downtown Honolulu, Punchbowl, Kalihi and elsewhere — said the resolution stems from several incidents including break-ins at Salt Lake District Park.
“So we want to focus the cameras directly at the city facilities and at the district parks,” Santos-Tam said. “[And] I wanted to not be selfish and put it just in my district.”
The Committee on Public Safety and Customer Services will next discuss the resolution at a future meeting.
